Active Communities resource page

With a lot of people stuck at home for the foreseeable future, and maybe struggling with ideas of things to do, stay active or just keep their mental health in a positive place, we’ve compiled a list of resources across a wide range of subjects to try and provide something of interest for everyone

For children

The Youth Sport Trust has a variety of activities that can be completed at home and can be adapted to suit a range of ages and abilities

The FA’s free SuperKicks app is available with hundreds of challenges with various levels built in for young people to try

Gymnastics HQ have developed a series of activity plans to keep active and practising your gymnastics

Early Movers has practical ideas to help with babies and young children’s physical development.

Swim school activity pack with plenty of fun, games and activities to try, all related to swimming and learning to swim. Available in the downloads section at the bottom of the page.

With schools closed, Team GB's Get Set programme has put together a range of free activities, challenges and learning resources to using the Olympic and Paralympic values to help children aged 5-18 to get active.

UK Active Kids have released #NikeMoveCrew which sets weekly and daily missions for children to take part in that helps towards their 60 minutes of daily recommended activity

For adults

Sport England’s #StayInWorkOut campaign has a dedicated page with a variety of activities to follow for all ages. This includes home workouts, activities to do with your children, accessible activities and mindfulness programmes

Les Mills have provided free access to their online exercise classes through a 60 day free trial of their ‘On Demand’ service

There are free workouts available at the Fitness Blender website that also provides healthy recipe ideas and healthy living guidance

The NHS also have a variety of beginner and intermediate workouts available on their website all of which are easy to follow

This spring, Fields in Trust have instigated an initiative called Bringing Parks to You! They are taking a virtual tour around the UK discovering beautiful parks and green spaces. Get your community involved to help shape the journey.

MoJoManuals are an inspiring, educational resource that have been voluntarily written by top sport scientists, leading coaches and educational tutors. MoJoManuals empower girls and women with information on how to be the best athlete/player they can be whilst gently building confidence to tackle specific challenges that girls often face in sport and life. The workbook format has embedded video links which add info or demonstrate routines/exercises and can be downloaded to your PC or smart device. Free download of these manuals available until end of May 2020. Follow WSNet on Twitter to get access

For older people

The NHS have a range of tips, advice and guidance on staying active in your later years including specific workouts for strength, flexibility and easy 10 minute whole body workouts

The ’10 Today’ audio exercise routines have been designed to help older people stay active at home are available on demand from BBC Sounds and broadcast live on BB Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

There is a growing video library of activities suitable for older, and less physically stable, people provided by Later Life Training for falls clients with regular daily videos on their Facebook page at 8am, 12 noon and 4pm. You can access all previous videos on their YouTube channel also.

Living Life provide free resources including audiobooks and worksheets to help manage mental health problems

Turn2me is an online resource providing information, support and guidance to promote positive mental health

Action for Happiness have a variety of resources available including a coping calendar, 10 keys to happier living as well as a number of things you can practically do to help with positive mental health in their ‘actions’ section

The NHS provides sources of information for those living with a variety of mental health problems. If you already have a mental health problem, you can also access comprehensive guidance provided by Mind.

NEW

You can borrow many titles from the expert endorsed Reading Well collections from the Wiltshire library eBook website and app. Reading Well promotes the benefits of reading for health and wellbeing, covering long term health conditions, mental health, dementia and books for young people and children. These titles have been recommended by health professionals.

National Shelf Service, is a new daily YouTube broadcast featuring eBook recommendations from professional librarians. Focusing on helping children and families discover new, diverse reading experiences, the broadcast will run Monday to Friday at 11am.

Visit the Wiltshire library Facebook pages at 6pm each evening for a bedtime story

Tuesday 9 June is Empathy Day. To mark it, EmpathyLab will host a day of brilliant online events and home-based celebrations to help children read, connect and act using empathy. Authors, illustrators, schools, libraries and families across the country will all be taking part. From 26 May, they'll be counting down with a fortnight of exciting activities.

NEW

Visit the Wiltshire library Facebook pages at 2pm on Mondays for a short multilingual rhyme time session.

Join Tracy on the Chippenham Library Facebook page on Mondays, Jo on the Bradford on Avon Library Facebook page on Wednesdays and Naomi/Philip on the Salisbury Library Facebook page on Fridays at 10am for a live story time and chat about the latest reading offers and challenges from Wiltshire libraries.

Join Kathryn on the Malmesbury Library Facebook page at 11am on the first and third Saturdays of the month for live Saturdads (& mums) rhyme time session.

The Silly Squad Summer Reading Challenge 2020, produced by the Reading Agency for children aged four to 11, launches on Friday 5 June and will run until September. This year it will be an online challenge with a safe online sign-up process which gives access to a personal profile area where children set reading goals, review books, view book recommendations and access guides to e-lending. There is also a forum to chat to friends, play games, download and print activities, as well as family activities with rewards and unlockable content to keep children and families engaged throughout the summer months. Wiltshire libraries are also planning special reading challenges for August – watch this space!

For adults

If your reading group has moved online, we have a list of eBooks that can be read by multiple people at once and that are ideal for reading groups. The list of Reading Group Suggestions can be found on the Wiltshire RBdigital Home page.

The Wiltshire library service now have 38 eMagazines available, as well as thousands of eBooks and eAudiobooks, all of which are free to download with a Wiltshire library card.

Visit the Wiltshire library Facebook pages at 7pm on Thursday evenings for a short quiz. Answers will be posted at 7pm.

On Tuesdays at 3pm, Basil from Trowbridge Library (2 June), Philip from Salisbury Library (9 June) and Steph from Melksham Library (16 June) will be taking it in turns to hold live Tea and chat sessions on the library Facebook pages.

Visit the Arts in Wiltshire blog for a wide array of ideas to draw, write, sing, watch theatre, shows, films, documentaries as well as ideas to get involved in dance, photography, crafts and much, much more. This blog has a large number of links to other resources for you to try.

If your child is interested in swimming or is a learn to swim member at one of Wiltshire Council’s swimming pools then why not give them our Swim School activity pack to have a go at, which features a range of swimming related tasks, activities and challenges.

National creative arts competition for over 70's stuck at home to challenge ordinary people, who have never published before and are not professional writers, musicians or artists, to create new works of literature, poetry, music and art during the time they are quarantined.

KAPOW! The marvellous Cartoon Museum has produced free resources showing people how to draw
their own comic stories, create caricatures and more.

The National Archives has collated a series of boredom busters – these online resources and
activities include do-it-yourself family history tips, home schooling
resources, author talks and games for families.

Art UK is the online home for every public art collection in the UK which
means that while galleries and museums are closed you can still view your
favourite paintings. You can search by venue or by artist. In May Art UK
is launching Curations, a tool that lets the public create their own digital artworks
exhibition. It will provide some help to museums and other public art
collections, allowing them to maintain their relationships with the public
through digital means, raise awareness of the art they hold, and the
stories behind the art – so that when better times return, more people
will head to see the art for real. Partner Collections can join the Art UK Shop at no extra cost to their organisation. This is a shared digital
infrastructure that helps collections to generate commercial income
without risk or capital spend.

Birmingham Museums is one of many cultural organisations to take its collections
and premises online to support visitor engagement during the lockdown caused by Covid-19. Visitors can enjoy virtual tours via ScanTech Digital, an extensive image database, ‘object spotlight’
videos, past displays and exhibitions on the museums YouTube channel. To help bolster funds a Just Giving page has been set up with
a suggested donation of £3.

New

Wiltshire's Celebrating Age project has posted it's third concert online on their YouTube page - this was recorded on March 18 and you can watch it now.

Digital Unite have brought together some of their most relevant digital guides to help staff and customers during these challenging times - e.g. Finding reliable COVID-19 news & information, social media, online shopping

Learn My Way from the Good Things Foundation have easy to follow courses covering many areas including the basics of using a mouse and keyboard, staying safe online, using office programs, managing money, health appts online, shopping etc.

FutureLearn - free membership with a lot of different online courses on a wide range of topics, including CPD courses like how to teach online.

NEW - Find out about local fire service provision with a range of educational and fun activities on their website as well as their C19 Mini Superheroes challenge!

Wiltshire Council is launching a series of ‘Ask the Athlete’ weekly video broadcasts that will feature on the Active Wiltshire Facebook page.

All athletes featured are past
and present Wiltshire Council Funding Future Olympians and Paralympians grant
recipients. These include former British rhythmic gymnast champion Francesca Fox, Olympic skeleton bob silver medalist Shelley Rudman
and Paralympic gold medalist Jennifer Kehoe MBE as well as Tokyo 2021 hopefuls
Tom Gale and Dan Bethell.

'Ask an Athlete' will give you an opportunity to send in questions to your favorite sporting stars as well as seeing them participate in interactive challenges – will our athletes be able to rise to the challenge they are set?

Each Friday Wiltshire Council will announce the next elite athlete to feature on ‘Ask the Athlete’ via the Active Wiltshire Facebook page. You will then have until the following Monday to submit your questions for them on Facebook, Twitter or via email, with the video broadcast on Thursday each week.

Disclaimer statements

Before you start any physical activities that you may find above, please make sure that it is safe for you to exercise based on any current health or medical conditions you may have. Please make sure you have plenty of space around you in order to perform any exercises that you take part in, and that you're wearing the appropriate attire, including footwear, to do the activity that you're participating in.